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George York was the head keeper at Maine’s remote and isolated Mt. Desert Rock Lighthouse from 1928 to 1936. He lived there with his wife and two young children on this barren rock that was 25 miles out to sea. After his wife had a miscarriage at Mt. Desert Rock because of a lack of medical services, he took his family to visit Maine’s West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, a land-based lighthouse at the eastern most point of land in the United States in Lubec, Maine where he took this photo.
The barn, partially shown to the left in this photo, and the small shed in between the keeper’s house and the fog signal building no longer stand.
After visiting West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, George York and his wife decided it was time to make a change. York requested a transfer to a land-based or even a large island lighthouse where living conditions would be more suitable for his family. But after eight years of faithful service at one of America’s most remote and dangerous North Atlantic Ocean lighthouse stations, the government denied his request. York believed that he was left with no other logical choice. He quit the Lighthouse Service and bought a farm on the mainland. In later years, his daughter, Shirley, recalled that she hated farm life and yearned to return to her lighthouse. Finally, 64 years later, in July of 2000, her wish became a reality when she and her brother, Bill, returned to Mt. Desert Rock Lighthouse.
This story appeared in the
May/Jun 2014 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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